On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Robert Reeves wrote:
> Did anyone happen to catch the STS-94 pass over Texas at 5:23 AM CDT
> Wednesday, April 16?
I intended to, but didn't set my alarm the previous night (and
subsequently woke up at ~5:30: a tad late).
> Spectacular! The God's favored us here in San Anmtonio. Three straight
> clear mornings with STS passes and a reentry. This is very unseasonal
> weather (usually clouds up at 1 AM.) but I am not complaining. STS popped
> up over the trees right on time and damn! It was cooking! So that's what
> Mach 25 looks like. One thing or another over the past years has prevented
> me from seeing a reentry, but eveything fell into place this morning.
>
+> A bright orange fireball followed by that really bright luminescent
trail
> that lasted two minutes under my bright urban sky. As the trail spread to
> an appearance like a fat jet contrail, you could see puffs and knots in it
> through binoculars. I can't get over fast it was moving. It startled me so
> much I was delayed in getting off two pictures, but they should turn out OK.
This I did see. The fireball looked yellow to me though, with a
white, yellowish tinged contrail behind it. Judging from where it
passed under Polaris, I think the track was a little more southerly
(so higher in the sky) than predicted. Couldn't tell that there were that
many puffs and knots, but I didn't have any binocs. I never heard any
sonic boom. Since I was near loop 410, it's traffic noise may have masked
the boom. The color was markedly different than the one I saw in
December; that one was definitely orange (the only other one I've seen).
It's neat to see something that has humans in it cruise by in such a
wonderful fashion.
Robert Fenske, Jr. rfenske@swri.edu Sw |The Taming the C*sm*s series:
Southwest Research Institute /R---\ |
Signal Exploitation & Geolocation Div | I | |"The Martian canals were the
San Antonio,Texas USA ph:210-522-3931 \----/ | Martians' last ditch effort."